"She was lying in bed. There were no signs of any foul play
or any struggle  She had no sign of poisoning or anything,"
the minister's personal assistant Abhinav Kumar told
reporters gathered outside the hotel.

The death came after Sunanda, 52, was embroiled in a spat
with a Pakistan-based journalist, Mehr Tarar, whom she
accused of stalking her husband in a series of Twitter posts.

Tarar denied she was having an affair with the Indian
minister and hit back at Sunanda for making what she said
were wild allegations.

On Thursday, the Indian couple issued a statement saying they
were distressed by the controversy caused by unauthorised use
of their Twitter accounts. They said they were happily
married and intended to stay that way.

Tharoor, a former U.N. diplomat, married Sunanda in 2010. The
same year he had to resign from his first ministerial job
over allegations of wrongdoing in bidding for a cricket team
in the Indian Premier League.